Colombian Justice Orders Protection for Indigenous People Displaced by Armed Conflict

Colombia's Constitutional Court has ordered the protection of the Jiw indigenous people, a semi-nomadic community living in extreme precariousness in the Guaviare department. The community has endured five forced displacements stemming from the armed conflict, internal confrontations, and recent floods, leading to a prolonged confinement outside their ancestral lands.

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that the prolonged confinement of the community outside their ancestral territory, what jurisprudence calls forced sedentarism, is not only a risk but, in practice, a form of ongoing cultural extermination.

The court concluded that this "forced sedentarism" is not merely a risk but an ongoing form of cultural extermination. The Jiw community is living in "inhumane material conditions and overcrowding," with inadequate basic sanitation posing epidemiological risks, constant hunger, acute child malnutrition, and a lack of access to formal education and healthcare. The ruling identified a "systematic and prolonged pattern of state omission," as various entities had deferred responsibility for over three years without any authority comprehensively assuming the duty of protection.

This pattern of inaction violated principles of coordination, concurrence, and subsidiarity, transforming what was a temporary emergency into a permanent structural crisis that threatens the Jiw people's cultural survival. The court reconstructed a history of five displacements, beginning with their departure from the Zaragoza reserve due to the armed conflict. A partial return was disrupted by internal fighting, forcing the community through various municipalities before they returned to the banks of the Guaviare River due to new threats.

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The community suffers from inhumane material conditions and overcrowding, lack of basic sanitation with associated epidemiological risks, constant hunger, acute child malnutrition, and lack of access to formal education and healthcare.

In May 2024, floods caused by the rising Guaviare River forced them to relocate again, this time to the vicinity of the Coliseo Azul in San José del Guaviare, where they currently reside. The court emphasized that the Jiw people are traditionally mobile, with their identity deeply tied to their territory and practices like hunting, fishing, and gathering. Maintaining them away from their ancestral lands constitutes "forced sedentarism" and risks destroying their cultural identity. Immediate measures ordered by the court include ensuring potable water and effective sanitation services in San José del Guaviare, with special attention to women and children.

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That pattern constituted an autonomous violation of the principles of coordination, concurrence, and subsidiarity, and is the direct cause of the transitory emergency situation having consolidated into a permanent structural crisis.